On Tuesday, I posted an audio clip of David Barton on Eric Metaxas' radio show talking about the two times when Thomas Jefferson cut up the Gospels to create an extraction of the morals of Jesus. During Jefferson's first term, he revealed his beliefs about Christianity to some of his closer friends and in the process decided to cut out of the Gospels portions which Jefferson believed were actually from Jesus, leaving the rest behind.On the program, Barton told Metaxas a made up story about … [Read more...]

Last week, Eric Metaxas had David Barton on his radio show and told the audience that he loved Barton and his work. He also said he used some of Barton's work to help write his new book If You Can Keep It. That book has been the subject of many critical reviews.They also briefly discussed Barton's pulled-from-publication book, The Jefferson Lies. In particular, Barton claimed to enlighten the audience about what is commonly known as the Jefferson Bible. Metaxas started to ask Barton a … [Read more...]

With slight editing, this post is reprinted from prior posts on Independence Day. Last year it was the culmination of my Daily Jefferson series.Happy Independence Day!In addition to being Independence Day, this is the day that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826. On this day in 1826, former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were once fellow Patriots and then adversaries, die on the same day within five hours of each ot … [Read more...]

Yesterday, History professor Gregg Frazer posted a very helpful preview of Eric Metaxas' upcoming book, If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty. In this book, it appears that Metaxas has taken some pages from David Barton.There is a preview of the parts of the book available at Amazon and Google so I was able to check some of what Frazer wrote and look into a couple of additional problems. Given what I found, I would not recommend it unless one plans to fact check it. H … [Read more...]

On April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Virginia. Over 270 years later, Jefferson is trending on Twitter. Many people want to claim Jefferson. Today, for instance, the Heritage Foundation has an article claiming that the Tea Party embodies Jefferson's legacy.Jefferson had many sides and wasn't perfectly consistent. The letter to James Madison below might be a surprise to many of Jefferson's conservative fans. Thomas Jefferson to James Madison28 Oct. 1785Papers … [Read more...]

David Barton was a guest on Michael Brown's Line of Fire show recently and spun some familiar yarns.A story that has been around awhile (since Barton's 1989 book Myth of Separation) is his claim that Thomas Jefferson incorporated the Bible and Isaac Watts hymnal into the curriculum of the Washington D.C. schools while Jefferson was president. This claim has been thoroughly debunked before by others, notably Jim Allison and Chris Rodda. While those authors documented well their rebuttal to … [Read more...]

In the midst of his campaign for Ted Cruz, David Barton took some time to appear on Michael Brown's Line of Fire radio show. While they didn't mention my name, I suspect the Pennsylvania psychology professor was me. I did learn that I don't hold to "basic Christian teachings" (which ones, David?) and that none of his critics were history guys. I don't know how he sleeps at night.He said a bunch of stuff he usually says (and which I have debunked) but, in light of Michael Brown's praise of … [Read more...]

UPDATE: On the 7/22/16 Eric Metaxas Show, David Barton told this same story. Barton included the part about Jefferson getting the idea to cut up the Gospels due to a sermon from Scottish minister William Bennet. The post below debunks that. I also cite Mark Beliles who told me Barton was wrong in his claim. Beliles was cited in Metaxas' new book as an authority on Jefferson.(original post........................)Reading through the new edition of The Jefferson Lies, it is clear that … [Read more...]